Difference Between Vista Ultimate and Home Premium

Vista Ultimate vs. Home Premium

The Windows Vista Series has become the flagship of Microsoft’s premiere Windows Operating System. Following the success of XP, Vista was initially conceptualized to eradicate the inconveniences and bugs of its predecessors. Hence, Vista to date, is marketed in different versions. Two of the most sought after versions are the Vista Home Premium and the Vista Ultimate.

So which edition is actually better? Bearing the name ‘premium,’ this gives the Vista Home Premium an obvious leverage over the other versions, like the Vista Home Basic. However, if it is pitted against Vista Ultimate, it is no longer a certainty if it is still better in terms of features, since the latter has the term ‘ultimate’ under its belt.

Foremost, for the sake of differentiating the two, the Vista Home Premium version is the earlier version. In terms of pricing, it is very obvious that the earlier Vista Home Premium version is relatively cheaper as opposed to the newer Vista Ultimate. Most of the retailers sell Premium at round $239 USD, while the Ultimate is usually sold at $399. To many tech savvy individuals, the cost of the latter may come as a surprise, or a major pain in the pocket. They often question if the Ultimate edition really has a plethora of brand new features that makes it worthy of its price. To their surprise, this edition has been overly criticized due to its high cost, and has only a few more features added.

Actually, the Home Premium edition is just the Vista Home Basic version, plus the addition of some lucrative features, that include media applications and other supports to HDTV, Meeting Space (the media centre), tablet computers, mobile PCs, network projectors, and a whole lot more. However, this OS does not have added security features, like domain join and drive encryption, which are present in the Ultimate version.

On the contrary, the ultimate version is indeed packed with most, if not all, of the combined features of all the other versions. It also has WinSAT for better game performance, and can use an entire video, set to full motion, as part of the desktop background. The latter is more of a glittery scheme by Microsoft to lure those who wanted their PCs to become extra flashy, but, these features still do not justify adding $160 USD to this edition’s price.

1. The Windows Vista Home Premium OS was released earlier than the Ultimate version.

2. The Windows Vista Home Premium OS is basically cheaper than the Ultimate version.

3. The Vista Ultimate version boasts of stronger security software, not to mention loads more fantastic business applications, when compared to the Home Premium edition.

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